Coteries Abroad and Russian Liquidators

Published:Za PravduNo. 46, November 28, 1913.

      Published according to theZa Pravdutext.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 19,

      pages508-510.Translated:The Late George HannaTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

IssueNo. 86 ofNovaya Rabochaya Gazetacontains a
scurrilous article against Social-Democrats that deserves attentionin
spite ofits abusive character andin spite ofthe
insinuations of which everybody is sick and tired.

Thisarticle is entitled “The German Social-Democratic Press on the
Split”. It deserves attention because it very clearly explains to Russian
workers something they have not known up to now, and which theyought
to know.

Theyought to knowwhat intrigues the coteries of Russian
Social-Democrats abroad are hatchingagainstthe Social-Democratic
organisation in Russia, for ignorance of these intrigues constantly and
inevitably condemns many Russian Social-Democrats to making comic and
tragi-comic mistakes.

Theliquidators’ article, commences with italics:“Not a
singlevoice has so far been heard in the ranks of the German
Social-Democrats” in favour of a split (by “split”, the liquidators mean
thebuildingof a Marxist organisationin opposition tothe liquidators).

Notethe italics in the first sentence of the article: “Not a
singlevoice”!

Theworn-out trick of the bourgeois hack-writer—not everybody reads a
newspaper through to the end, but everybody sees thefirststriking words of an article....

Readthe liquidators’ article further. It quotes the opinion of a
Frankfurt newspaper, which is, of course,in favourof the
liquidators, but it says nothing about the fact that this newspaper is an
opportunist one!

Mydear liquidators! Do you think the Russian workers are fools who do
not know that there are opportunists among the German Social-Democrats, and
that theSocialist(alleged)Monthly, the chief organ of the German
opportunists,constantlysupportsNasha Zarya?

Weread further. The opinion of a Dresden newspaper. It condemns the
split in general. Neither the newspaper’s sympathies in Russian affairs,
nor its position on German affairs is indicated. The liquidators do not
want to enlighten the Russian workers, but to fool them by leaving a number
of things unsaid.

Weread further. The Leipzig organ of the Social-Democrats

“afortnight ago published a report from Russia
   describing the situation in tones rather favourable to the schismatics”.

“afortnight ago published a report from Russia
   describing the situation in tones rather favourable to the schismatics”.

Thisis literally what is published in the liquidator newspaper; and,
of course, not a word in italics.

And,of course, not a word, not a syllable, not a sound onthe
substanceof that “unpleasant” report! Oh, we are past masters in
the art of petty trickery and miserable intrigue!

Onthe one hand, we have italics: “Not a singlevoice”; and
on the other hand, theonlyreport from Russia turns out to be
written “in tones rather favourable” to the opponents of the liquidators.

Weread further:

“Theissue [of the Leipzig Social-Democratic newspaper]
   of November 15 contains a longeditorial[liquidators’ italics!]
   article”....

“Theissue [of the Leipzig Social-Democratic newspaper]
   of November 15 contains a longeditorial[liquidators’ italics!]
   article”....

fromwhichonlythe passages that favour the liquidators are
quoted.

Russianworkers! It is high time you learned to expose the liquidators’
lies.

Theliquidators print the word “editorial” in italics. This is alie. The article is signed with the initialsJ. K.,[1]i.e., it isnotan editorial article, but
an article by an individual contributor!

Theliquidators are deceiving the Russian workers in the most brazen
and insolent manner.

Thisis not all. The liquidatorsconcealedthe fact that in
this very same report thesevenare called “shameless
splitters” for admitting Jagiello to the Duma group, in opposition to
the will of the Polish Social-Democrats!

Andthis is still not all. The liquidatorsconcealed afact
which is obvious to every politically-informed person. The article signed
J. K. was written by one ofTyszka’ssupporters. All the evidence
goes to prove this. Tyszka’s supporters are the group of Rosa Luxemburg,
Tyszka & Co. in Berlin, those who circulated a most abominable rumour
about the presence of provocateurs in the Warsaw Social-Democratic
organisation. EvenLuch(true, this wasafterJagiello
had been smuggled into the Duma group!) admitted that this was
abominable. EvenNovaya Rabochaya Gazetahas admitted more than
once that “Tyszka & Co.” do not represent the polish
Social-Democratic workers of Warsaw in fighting against theworkers’
insurance centre, to which the Bund, the Lefts and the Polish
Social-Democrats (of Warsaw, and not Tyszka & Co., of course) are
affiliated.

Andnow, in order to fool the Russian workers, the liquidators clutch
at the coat-tails of the Tyszka crowd. A drowning man clutches at a straw
(even at a filthy and rotten one).

Thearticle of the Tyszka supporter, J. K., like all the pronouncements
of that group, throbs with but one desire:
to hatch an intrigue around the split, to make “a little political
capital” out of it. Pretending that coteries “divorced” from the
working-class movement in Russia are viable political organisations,
hatching intrigues around this, uttering sentimental phrasesinstead
ofstudying events in Russia—such is the nature of “Tyszka-ism”,
and it is ,what nine-tenths of the separate and “independent” coteries
abroad are engaged in.

Theyseem now to be reviving in the hope of being able to “play on”
the split between the six and the seven....

Vainhope! Russian worker Social-Democrats have matured sufficiently to
be ablethemselvesto decide the fate of their organisation by a
majority vote, and contemptuously to brush aside the intrigues of the
coteries abroad. Members of these coteries very often write in the German
Social-Democratic press expressing the point of view of these coteries; but
it is not at all difficult to recognise this crowd “by their ears”.

[1]J.K.(J. Karski)—pseudonym of J. J. Marchlewski.